1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an assembly of electrical equipment for the power control of loads, notably motor starter devices, this assembly comprising a baseplate and a set of power conductors provided to supply power to the loads, for each load, a pair of devices mounted on the baseplate and made up of a circuit breaker and a contactor, the pairs of devices being capable of being placed side by side on the baseplate.
2. Discussion of Background
Such an equipment assembly is used to supply power to a load such as a motor, in order to start it or when it is stopped according to the power up or power down of control conductors of the contactor; the circuit breaker is attached to the contactor in order to cut the power supply lines of the contactor when it detects, by means of suitable monitoring devices, an operational anomaly, for example an overcurrent in at least one of these lines.
Known motor starter assemblies include baseplates fitted with a length of section for supporting the circuit breaker and a length of section for supporting the contactor; the operator must wire up the contactor with the circuit breaker, connect this to the set of bars and wire up the control conductors to the corresponding terminals of the contactor and possibly to a signalling auxiliary contact deck which is attached to the circuit breaker and which opens the control circuit in the event that the circuit breaker is triggered. The wiring and mounting operations which this involves are long and tedious. It is on the other hand desirable to be able to group together several contactor-circuit breaker assemblies in a single device, particularly when these assemblies must be connected to a control bus.